Sky Views: After #MeToo, we can't cast every man out into the wilderness

Hannah Thomas-Peter, US correspondent

I've spent the last year working on stories relating to consent and the abuse of power.

My team's documentary about Harvey Weinstein will air on Sky Atlantic on Oscars night.

In the space afforded before his trial begins, I've been thinking more broadly about the nature of penance and redemption in the #MeToo era.

The fall of the king of Hollywood and the movement it sparked has touched every part of society.

One news organisation is keeping a running tally of the number of politicians, CEOs, celebrities, performers and other public figures who have been accused of sexual misconduct since April 2017.

It's 263.

Barely a month seems to go by without a new person being added, and that's just the ones we know about.

In the face of all of this, it's easy to feel outraged.

Certainly, I think outrage has been a useful way to swing a pendulum that goodness knows needed swinging.

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But now what?

There is an entire justice system for those whose alleged behaviour, like Harvey Weinstein's, reaches the threshold for criminal charges.

What do we do about those who don't?

At the moment, I think we are writing those rules on the fly, and perhaps we are falling short, our progress in this debate stymied by anger, shame and disgust.

Consider comedian Louis C.K.

There are simply too many men who've transgressed our rightly redrawn boundaries to cast them all out in to the wilderness with no way back

He admitted to masturbating and exposing himself in front of women without their consent.

Now he is trying to return to the stage.

There have been howls of outrage about this attempt.

Instinctively, and personally, I agree; hasn't he forfeited his right to a potentially lucrative career because of his truly awful behaviour?

But when I stop to think about it properly, the answer should be no.

Because are we really saying that when people do idiotic, destructive things, they are not allowed to try and recover? To become useful and productive again?

Louis C.K. might not, the market will decide, but I defend his right to try.

And what about all those people who have been accused of less egregious behaviour?

The inappropriate comments, opportunism, clumsy "flirting", misread social cues, the unthinking exploitation of a power imbalance… the stuff that eventually goes on in almost every situation where people come in to contact with one another.

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The producer is heard telling Melissa Thompson he wants to "have a little part" of her in a meeting to discuss her tech firm.

I'm not for one single moment suggesting there shouldn't be consequences for these things.

But I know now that there are simply too many men who've transgressed our rightly redrawn boundaries to cast them all out in to the wilderness with no way back.

I'm not talking about forgiveness.

That is for survivors to decide and nobody else's business.

But I suppose I am talking about redemption, restitution, and to an extent reconciliation, and how that might be possible as we shape our post-Weinstein world.

The tools for achieving these things is for another Sky Views column, on another day.

Sky Views is a series of comment pieces by Paste BN editors and correspondents, published every morning.

Previously on Sky Views: Martha Kelner - Sky Views: A bitter battle is raging in athletics - and it could get very ugly